Colors and Languages
by Scotty1609
Summary: Lian runs into some mean comments at school... Cue the Teen Titans to the rescue! Deals with racism and multi-cultural children. :) (inspired by the AMAZING JudeDeluca)


**So I wrote some fluff a long while ago that I found and decided to upload. This is inspired by the AMAZING 'JudeDeluca' and their BEAUTIFUL story 'The Color of Lian Harper'. JudeDeluca is probably THE BEST Lian Harper writer I've seen so far, so if you love Lian, you've GOT to check them out!**

 **I don't own Teen Titans. :*(**

 **...**

Donna grinned when she heard Dick coming down the hallway. He had just come back to the Tower after picking Lian up from preschool, a favor to Roy as the other man was finishing up business with the League that was going to take him all day. Lian _adored_ her 'Uncle Dickie', and Dick himself had a massive soft spot for the young girl. Hell, if she was being honest, Donna would say that _everyone_ who met her had a massive soft spot for Lian.

"Lian, honey, if you don't tell me what happened, I can't _help_."

Was Lian crying?

Donna darted over to the hall's entryway and froze when she saw Dick holding Lian close, bouncing her up and down and stroking her dark hair. His lips kissed her temple as she sobbed, rubbing her snotty nose against his BPD windbreaker. "Lian-"

"What happened?" Donna asked as she approached, hand going to rub soothing circles in the toddler's back. Dick's clueless expression answered back.

Donna gently pried Lian from Dick's arms and carted the child off to the living room. Dick went to the kitchen to make some chocolate milk for the distressed girl, emerging a few minutes later with said drink and a tiny bowl of lucky charms. Donna rolled her eyes.

"You're going to give her cavities, you know."

Dick grinned. "It's my job as her uncle to spoil her."

"Her daddy does enough of that."

At the word 'daddy', Lian's sobs grew louder. The girl was clearly distraught, and Roy apparently had something to do with it. The only problem was that he had been at the Tower ever since Lian went to bed last night, and she was fine up until Dick got her from school.

Donna shushed the girl as she rocked her, trying to get the tears to stop before Lian got dehydrated. Dick crouched down in front of the two, his hand resting on Lian's knee. It took a lot of cooing and bribery to get her to calm down, but eventually Lian's sobs turned to hiccups as she sipped at her chocolate milk, tear-tracks staining her face. Dick, still rubbing circles on the girl's knee, reluctantly began to speak. He didn't want to set the child off again, but there was very little that could make Lian sob like that.

"Lian, honey, can you tell us what happened to make you so upset?"

Lian hiccuped. "S-Sarah!"

Dick cocked an eyebrow, and Donna nodded slowly. "Isn't she your friend at school?" the Amazon inquired.

"Mm-hmm," Lian sniffled, rubbing furiously at her eyes. Dick pulled her hands away from her face.

"Lian, you'll scratch your eyes, honey." He handed her a tissue to rub at her cheeks with. "What happened with Sarah?"

"Daddy isn't my daddy!" Lian sobbed out, and Donna quickly hushed her.

"Princess, that's not right," the woman chuckled, "Your daddy is _definitely_ your daddy."

"Sarah said he wad'n."

Dick and Donna exchanged looks before turning back to the toddler. "What _exactly_ did Sarah say?" Dick was the one to speak this time, glowering slightly. Donna kicked him to get him to lighten up- they didn't need to traumatize Lian any more than she already was.

"S-Sarah said that daddy wad'n my daddy cuz he gots red hair an' I got black hair! An- an she said that daddy's _white_ an' I'm not, so daddy's not my daddy." Lian's sobs began anew. "She said I'm _'dopted_!"

Dick had to stand and turn around in order to hide his rage from the child. Donna was able to hide her anger a bit easier and cradled Lian to her chest, rocking the little girl back and forth in an attempt to soothe her.

That was how Roy found them three hours later. Several of the other Titans had arrived at the Tower and were milling about, all sharing the same aura of anger. Victor and Garfield were in the kitchen, Victor slamming around the oven as he made some sort of meal for them. Garfield had transformed into a bird and was bristling, hopping around and making loud chirps. Starfire was viciously trimming her azalea- although _how_ the woman could make trimming a bush look _vicious_ Roy had no clue- and Dick was standing next to her, eyes fixated on the door as if he had been waiting for Roy. Wally sat on the floor with Garth and Donna, steam nearly rising from the man's ears as he plastered on a smile for Roy's precious little daughter who was making 'pew, pew' noises as she aimed a water gun at her aunt and uncles. Donna and Garth, for the most part, were managing to look very calm as they played with the child, Donna holding a glittery baton and pretending to use it as a sword to 'block' Lian's 'bullets'. Garth was using a pillow as a shield as he moaned about the 'vicious warrioress coming to get us!' If Roy searched harder, he could just make out the outline of Raven's cloak as the woman meditated in the alcove behind Starfire's miniature garden and the dining table. Even the usually calm woman managed to look irked as she floated.

"DADDY!" Lian cheered when she saw Roy drop his quiver by the door. She ran over and collided with his leg, hanging on for dear life. Roy lifted his leg parallel to the ground, making Lian hang in the air as she giggled and chattered on about her day.

"... and then- and then Uncle Gillhead said he an' Uncle Gar are gonna take me to the ' _quarium_ an- and Uncle Dickie said he'd gonna take me on the _t'apeze_ and..."

Roy laughed as he limped into the kitchen, Lian still hanging onto his leg, and greeted his teammates. Victor managed a tight smile. "Hey, dude. How's the League?"

Roy rolled his eyes as he lifted his daughter into his arms and kissed her head, allowing her to play with his sunglasses. "As dramatic as usual. What's going on here? Why's everyone so-"

"Hey kiddo!" Garfield cut Roy off as he transformed into a Jack Russel Terrier. "Let's play tag!"

" _Yeah_!" the toddler cheered, kicking out of her father's arms and stumbling after Garfield. It was then that Dick and Starfire stalked into the room, the alien princess looking moments from sending starbolts through a wall.

"...Um... Someone wanna fill me in on whatever happened while I was away?"

"Some _glorbat_ from Lian's school told her she was _boorgluun_ and-"

"English, princess."

Dick butted in then. "That Sarah kid that Lian's friends with told her that you can't be her father because you're white and have red hair, but she's Asian. And then she said Lian must be adopted." Dick's glower relaxed a bit as he continued. "Donna and I explained to her that she wasn't adopted, and we pulled out that scrapbook Donna made of when she was a newborn, which seemed to convince her. And then we explained that Grandpa Ollie adopted you, and Bruce adopted me, so being adopted isn't a _bad_ thing, but-"

"Wait, wait, wait-" Roy was absolutely _reeling_ , "-some _brat_ told my _etai yahzi_ that she was adopted just because she _looks different_?!"

From the looks on his teammates' faces, Roy got the picture. He let loose a string of colors as he put a hand over his face. "I've gotta do something about this."

" _We've_ gotta do something about this," Dick corrected, eyes dark.

Roy broke out into a wicked grin. "I think I know _exactly_ what we can all do."

…

Lian waved happily to her teacher as she hefted her Superman backpack higher up on her shoulders. "Bye-bye Mr. Ngyuen!"

"Ah, wait, Lian!" the man exclaimed. "You can't leave until your father-"

"Hi, _etai yahzi_!"

"Daddy!"

Mr. Ngyuen looked pale as the entirety of the Teen Titans appeared around the girl. A seven-foot alien princess, a green Siberian tiger, a woman with four red eyes, a massive half-man-half-machine, a menacing man with a bow staff, a woman with a golden lasso, a man with a terrifying claw scar over his eye, and a very, very peeved archer stood in his doorway. To Mr. Ngyuen's surprise- and horror- Lian charged at the archer and leaped into his arms, nuzzling up to him.

"Daddy, Daddy! Today we..."

After she babbled for a few minutes, Lian had to take a moment to breathe. It was then that Roy butted in. "Honey, where's your friend Sarah?"

Lian lit up and turned to point at a girl with blonde pigtails and blue eyes who was sitting stalk-still with a crayon in her hand. Roy crouched in front of the girl with Lian in his arms, grinning beneath his sunglasses. "Hiya, Sarah. My name's Arsenal, and I'm Lian's daddy. Those people behind me are her aunts and uncles... Now, my baby girl said that you mentioned something a little mean yesterday."

Sarah pouted, shaking her head and turning away. " _My_ daddy said that Lian's adopted cuz she's Asian and you're white."

Roy closed his eyes and forced himself not to be angry. This was just a case of a child parroting her parents, and Lord only knew how many times the same thing had happened with Lian. "Oh, yeah? Well is your daddy coming to pick you up today?"

"He's right there!"

A man with a briefcase and bushy mustache stood behind the Titans, looking rather terrified and awed. The team whirled to glare at him, Starfire's eyes glowing a murderous green. She backed the man against a wall and growled- actually _growled_. Garfield was no help, as he backed up the woman with a hiss of his own. "What kind of a man tells a child such things?" Starfire bit out. "Such horrible and discriminatory things?! On my planet we call people like you a _gnarklog_!"

Nightwing pulled the woman back, going to stand in front of the man with hands on his hips. "I'm gonna put this in as simple terms as possible. It's _very_ possible for a person to be of two different ethnicities and only look one, especially if one of their ethnicities is genetically dominant- like Vietnamese compared to Irish and Navajo. Yeah, Arsenal is Irish and Navajo. _I'm_ Romani, but I don't look it much. You see the green guy over there? _He's_ African- technically- even though he doesn't look it." Nightwing's eyes narrowed behind his mask as he leaned forward, one finger poking the man's chest. "So the _next time_ you think about teaching your daughter racist sh- stuff, _think again_. Got it?"

The man, knees shaking and eyes wide, nodded quickly.

"Daddy, why's Uncle Nightwing being so scary?"

"Ssh, Lian," Roy caressed the girl's hair and nodded solemnly. "Uncle Nightwing's being a cool kid. Let's let him work."

"Okay, Daddy!"

After that, the Titans took Lian and Sarah out for pizza and ice-cream- with her father's approval of course. Lian began to teach Sarah what she knew of the Navajo language, and the Titans shared their own foreign tongues. The girls got a kick out of Starfire's Tamaranean jokes, even if they didn't understand what she was saying. While the two were playing with Garfield and Cyborg, Roy and Dick lounged against the wrought iron fence surrounding the pizza parlor's patio.

"She's something special, you know," Dick said with a smirk. "Your kid."

Roy chuckled, elbowing his friend. "Eh, who knows. Maybe you'll have one flying around some day- black hair, shooting starbolts and screaming in Romani."

Dick paled. "Oh, God... Let's not talk about that right now."

Roy threw his head back and laughed. Lian trotted over with Sarah in tow, beaming at her Uncle Dick the way she did when she wanted something. "Uncle Dick! Can you show us some flippy-flips?"

"I dunno, Lian..."

But the puppy-dog eyes always won out, and Dick _did_ have a massive soft-spot for Lian. So he relented, falling into a hand-stand as the girls cheered. "Oh, yeah," Roy chuckled. "This is the _life_."

 **...**

 **Like my little allusions to Nightstar there? ;P She's another one of my favorites. She needs to be in the New 52! DX**

 **Anyways, please review and favorite if you liked it! I'd appreciate it much! :D**


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